Sandburg student helps train service dogs

Sandburg High School student Amanda Trezek spends four hours a week training puppies to be service dogs for people with disabilities. (Submitted by Linda Fox, Heartland)

For Amanda Trezek, volunteering to garner community service hours has turned into a mission to help dogs and people.

Trezek, a junior at Sandburg High School in Orland Park, spends four hours every Tuesday at Heartland Service Dogs training puppies in basic obedience and adult canines to be service dogs for people with disabilities. The service dogs at the Mokena non-profit are eventually given to people with mobility problems, hearing impairments, post traumatic stress disorder and diabetes — where the canines alert their owners of their low blood sugar.

The service dog training includes getting the dogs used to wearing a harness and tolerating pressure on their backs while remaining calm. Trezek started volunteering at the training center about four years ago to gain community service hours needed for high school graduation.

"You keep them in that one position so they know they need to stay in that place for when the (disabled) person is getting up," said Trezek. "They have to get used to it."

Trezek's volunteerism also includes attending fundraising events, including a disability pet parade event in Chicago during the summer with the dogs, where she educates kids and adults of canine abilities.

One of Trezek's success stories was a yellow lab named Drifter who proved indispensable to a 19-year-old disabled woman. Drifter, who was a stray dog before his training at Heartland, helped a young woman with mobility issues caused by a muscular disease.

"She basically gained back her independence because before she had to use a wheel chair or walker," said Trezek.

Drifter can no longer be a service dog because of a medical issue but is now living with his handler, according to Trezek.

Linda Fox, who directs Heartland, said Trezek has become indispensable to the non-profit. Fox said the teen not only helps represent the importance of Heartland and service dogs but also doesn't mind cleaning up after the dogs or spending hours with a new puppy that is too small to be left unattended with its siblings and must be bottle-fed.

"She started out as a shy teenager…she has just blossomed with this," said Fox. "She now is a most fabulous ambassador for us."

Fox said during the summer Trezek spent Saturdays with her at a farmer's market in Mokena, showing the dogs to kids.

Helping dogs comes naturally to Trezek, who has tended to family pets since she was 6. She has three dogs, all rescues, and also helps take care of the family's two fish and her sister's gerbil. Trezek, who has volunteered in religious education classes at Saint Francis of Assisi Parish in Orland Park, said she intends to volunteer at an animal shelter next summer.

After high school and college, Trezek hopes to work in special education, possibly using dogs to help kids.

"You know the end result is the dog is going to be able to change someone's life and to have a little part in that is just a really great feeling," Trezek said.